Gantry Crane and Method for Laying a Track

ABSTRACT

A gantry crane is equipped with devices for transporting old and new ties and with pads, which are provided for spacing the new ties. The device for transporting the pads is provided in the form of pincers having two pincer parts that can be displaced relative to one another in a manner that is normal to a longitudinal direction of the frame. The device for transporting the new ties is located between the device for transporting the pads and the device for transporting the old ties.

The invention relates to a gantry crane having a crane frame with traveling gears for displacement on crane rails, and having apparatuses for transporting old and new sleepers and rail pads provided for spacing apart the new sleepers, and also relates to a method.

Such a machine is known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 4,275,659. The gantry crane can be displaced on the crane rails, irrespective of the continuous forward travel of the machine, in order to deliver new sleepers to a transporting arrangement. Parallel to the sleeper-transporting operation, it is also possible to use a crane boom, connected to the gantry crane, for transporting away rail pads used for spacing apart the new sleepers.

The object of the present invention, then, is to provide a gantry crane of the generic type by means of which rail pads can easily be removed.

This object is achieved according to the invention by a gantry crane of the type mentioned in the introduction having the features cited in the characterizing part of claim 1 and by a method according to claim 3.

This design allows the rail pads advantageously to be removed without the gantry crane having to be converted in any way or its performance being adversely affected. This removal operation can be automated by straight-forward design outlay without the transfer of the new sleepers or pick-up of the old sleepers being adversely affected.

Further advantages and embodiments of the invention can be gathered from the rest of the claims and the drawing.

The invention is described in more detail hereinbelow with reference to an exemplary embodiment illustrated in the drawing, in which:

FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 each show side views of a portion of a track-renewing machine made up of a plurality of work wagons,

FIGS. 4 and 5 show an enlarged illustration of a gantry crane in a side view and in plan view, respectively, and

FIG. 6 shows a detail-specific view of grippers for gripping a rail pad.

A machine 1, which can be seen in FIGS. 1 to 3 and is also referred to as a track-renewal train, is made up of a multiplicity of work wagons 2 which are coupled to one another and can be displaced on a track 5, in an operating direction 4, via rail-mounted traveling gears 3. New sleepers 6 are mounted at a front end, and these can be transported by a gantry crane 7, in forward-travel mode 20, to a transfer end 8 of a new-sleeper conveyor 9 running in the longitudinal direction of the machine. The gantry crane 7, which has a traveling drive 10, can be displaced in the longitudinal direction of the machine, by means of four traveling gears 12, on two crane rails 11, which are connected to the work wagons 2.

As can also be seen, in particular, in FIG. 4, the traveling gears 12 of the gantry crane 7 are connected to a crane frame 14 at a frame end 19 in each case by traveling-gear supports 13. Apparatuses 16 which can be adjusted in height by drives 15, can be rotated about a vertical axis 18 and are intended for transporting the new sleepers 6 and old sleepers 17 are located between the traveling-gear supports 13, as seen in the longitudinal direction of the machine.

An apparatus 22 for transporting rail pads 23 is located between the crane frame 14 and traveling gears 12, as seen in the vertical direction. These rail pads extend in the longitudinal direction of the machine and are used for spacing apart two adjacent layers of new sleepers 6. The abovementioned apparatus 22 is arranged at the front end of the gantry crane 7, as seen in the direction of forward travel 20 of the latter, so that the apparatus 16 for transporting the new sleepers 6 is positioned between the apparatus 22 for transporting the wooden rail pads 23 and the apparatus 16 for transporting the old sleepers 17.

As can be seen in FIGS. 5 and 6, the apparatus 22 is made up of a total of two pairs 24 of grippers which are spaced apart from one another—as seen in a direction normal to a longitudinal direction 31 of the frame. These pairs of grippers, in turn, are each formed from two grippers 25 spaced apart from one another in the longitudinal direction 31 of the frame. Each of these grippers 25 comprises two gripper parts 27 which can be moved in relation to one another by a drive 26 in a transverse direction of the machine. In the illustration of the gantry crane 7 which can be seen from FIG. 4, the gantry crane, following completion of its operating-cycle-initiating forward travel 20 on the crane rails 11 is located in a position in which the pairs 24 of grippers belonging to the apparatus 22 end up located above a layer 28 of new sleepers 6 which has already been deposited on the new-sleeper conveyor 9 in the immediately preceding operating cycle of the gantry crane 7 and, in the meantime, has been transported to a corresponding distance apart from the adjacent apparatus 16. Upon activation of a drive 29, the pairs 24 of grippers belonging to the apparatus 22 are lowered in order for the two rail pads 23 located on the layer 28 of the new sleepers 6 to be gripped and raised with the aid of the further drives 26.

Parallel to this operation, the adjacent apparatus 16 deposits new sleepers 6 at the transfer end 8 of the new-sleeper conveyor 9 and the corresponding apparatus 16 picks up old sleepers 17.

FIG. 2 uses chain-dotted lines to indicate the position of the gantry crane 7 following completion of its return travel 21. In this position, the two rail pads 23 have been dumped by the apparatus 22 into a container 30 located therebeneath. At the same time, the old sleepers 17 are also deposited in a further container 30 and a new layer of new sleepers 6 is picked up by the central apparatus 16. Renewed forward travel 20 initiates a new operating cycle of the gantry crane 7. In the meantime, the previously deposited layer of new sleepers 6 has been moved along the new-sleeper conveyor 9 until such time as the rail pads 23 located thereon are in a position suitable for being gripped by the apparatus 22 of the gantry crane 7. 

1. A gantry crane having a crane frame with traveling gears for displacement on crane rails, and having apparatuses for transporting old and new sleepers and rail pads—provided for spacing apart the new sleepers—wherein the apparatus for transporting the rail pads is designed as grippers, with two gripper parts which can be moved in relation to one another by a drive in a direction normal to a longitudinal direction of the frame, and is arranged between the crane frame and traveling gear, and in that the apparatus for transporting the new sleepers is positioned between the apparatus for transporting the rail pads and the apparatus for transporting the old sleepers.
 2. The gantry crane as claimed in claim 1, wherein the provision of a total of two pairs of grippers which are spaced apart from one another in a direction normal to the longitudinal direction of the frame and are each made up of two grippers spaced apart from one another in the longitudinal direction of the frame.
 3. A method for continuously laying a track formed from sleepers and rails, it being the case that new sleepers are transported to a transfer end of a new-sleeper conveyor, and are deposited thereon, by the forward travel of a gantry crane, while, at the same time, old sleepers are picked up, in order to be transported away, by the return travel of the gantry crane, wherein, as the new sleepers are deposited, the two rail pads—resting on new sleepers deposited in the previous operating cycle of the gantry crane—are picked up by grippers connected to the gantry crane, and in that, parallel to the operation of the old sleepers being deposited and the new sleepers being picked up by the gantry crane, the rail pads gripped by the grippers are dumped into a container. 